Leading-Edge Product Development Strategies to Improve Speed to Market

Overview: The insurance industry is going through a period of major change. Traditional products and markets are no longer providing growth opportunities. Carriers are forced to look outside their traditional products and markets for profitable growth. This is why it is important for insurance companies to understand the potential of leading-edge product development strategies to improve speed to market. With the aging of the baby boomer generation and their impending exodus from the workplace, there is a large population that is very concerned about their unfunded life span. This is predicted to be a $9 trillion market in the US with new needs and expectations. The younger generation presents themselves as a new group of buyers for traditional insurance products. This generation has very high expectations for how they can customize products to their unique needs, access real-time information through multiple channels and obtain the kind of customer experience they are used to from insurers, banks and other service providers. There is also a need to combine, distribute and support disability, healthcare, traditional life insurance, and other products across multiple channels. The Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006 has also opened the doors for combination product development.